Breakfast in Nashville means country ham. And you can have a wonderful slab of country ham at the Pancake Pantry, but it is not ham that puts this breakfast house on the roadfood map. It is fantastic pancakes, all kinds of them, the best being sweet potato pancakes that are fluffy and soft, just begging for a drizzle of the silky cinnamon cream that is provided in a pitcher on the table. And who can resist Caribbean buttermilk cakes strewn with pecans, bananas, coconut and powdered sugar? Or wild blueberry cakes, devilishly seasoned sugar and spice cakes, Swiss chocolate cakes, even creamy potato pancakes made with minced onion.

In addition to cinnamon cream, every table is provided a cruet of warm maple-flavored syrup. All the usual breakfast meats are available on the side, including that outstanding country ham, which is sizzled to a nice crunch around its edges on the griddle. Orange juice is freshly squeezed, sweet and pulpy.

Nearly always crowded (but with a fast turnover that usually precludes long a long wait), the Pancake Pantry is a big restaurant with plenty of space among the tables and a high-spirited ambience throughout the dining room. It is impossible to imagine being in a bad mood when eating here. After all, what’s not to be happy about when you are eating excellent pancakes with plenty of butter and syrup and good coffee on the side?

" Smoky Mountain Buckwheat Cakes look somber, but they are in fact featherlight. The gentle cakes come in a stack of five with plenty of butter and a pitcher of very warm syrup to pour on top."
Michael Stern